


Concept:Feelings

by Zayroen



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Other, databases are shit, hey google how do i make someone fight me, robots learning feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 08:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13314135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zayroen/pseuds/Zayroen
Summary: mer·cyˈmərsē/Submitnoun1.compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.Compassion? Forgiveness? What were these words? These concepts that he knew and yet did not know? Why did they seem so...important to him when he had never heard of them before? Why did he care about this 'mercy' or 'compassion' when it was his mission to destroy the inferior Sonic?





	Concept:Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> A commission for a dear friend that is a horrible BUM that got me into this ship!

It was an accident, coming upon the long line of broken branches as he shot overhead. Something called to him from there, made him double back and take a closer look. A look that made him reboot his optics at least twice as well as checking his vitals device before he could concede what he was seeing.

Sonic lived.

Landing beside the blue form amid the leaves and broken branches, Metal took up a defensive pose immediately, ready to fight but...nothing happened. Long moments passed where the only sound was that of the birds slowly returning before metal lowered his arms. Another check of vitals and no, he wasn't dead. So why wasn't he moving?

he cautiously stepped forwards, standing over the prone form of the weaker, softer, inferior flesh Sonic before poking his arm with a pointed metal foot. It would be easy, a stomp and he would finish his primary mission easily. He lifted his foot, ready to do just that when something....made him hesitate. Some...glitch? Why did he...not...want to finish the mission?

Metal lowered his foot slowly, staring down before he abruptly sat. What was wrong? What was causing his coding to rebel? To resist his mission? Eliminate the inferior Sonic and then destroy the Land of the Sky. Those were his goals, his missions in life. So why did he hesitate?

Weak. That's what flesh Sonic was. Weak and soft, fragile. A fall like this would barely dent himself and yet this creature was unconscious. He may not even ever wake up! It would be a mercy to end him.

Metal straightened at that, head tilting slightly. Mercy? Where had that thought come from? What was this...mercy? His own resources were lacking. They said nothing of this concept of Mercy but he knew it was a thing. It was child's play to hack into a nearby signal to reach a wider database.

mer·cy  
ˈmərsē/Submit  
noun  
1.  
compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.

Compassion? Forgiveness? What were these words? These concepts that he knew and yet did not know? Why did they seem so...important to him when he had never heard of them before? Why did he care about this 'mercy' or 'compassion' when it was his mission to destroy the inferior Sonic?

Metal could feel his code seizing, trying to reconcile the two ideals before he stood. He needed to kill Sonic. That was his mission! His goal in life, why he existed! But...what then? What about after? He would destroy the Upper World and after that? Then what? Would he just..cease?

Another search, this time a little harder as he had only..concepts to work from but he found what he was searching for. Fear. The concept was fear. He...felt? Fear? He felt? Was that right? This was so confusing! An attempt to shake the conflicting ideals away only made him look down at the still form again.

A branch was hanging over his head, knocked down when Sonic fell from the sky. Before Metal realized what he was doing, he was moving it. Easily tossing it to the side only to freeze. Why? Why move it? what purpose did that action serve? It needed to be moved! it was required to move it because..it..was in the way! Yes, that was it. He could not see Sonic's face properly, that is why he moved it. A rational action, finally. So he should also..move the other branches. Right, and perhaps that rock under Sonic's head..

He found himself at a loss again, watching Sonic with an almost frustrated air. This was not right! Why was he stalling? Was it another concept that he did not know? Did not understand? Kill Sonic, destroy Top Land.

But...he had killed Sonic. He watched his vitals stop as he fell. He had completed that mission. It was checked off, finished. Ended. That was all it required, the death of Sonic. What was the course of action if he came back? He was not programmed for this!

He sat again, staring at Sonic before reaching out slowly to press a sharp metal finger against his cheek. He killed Sonic. Did he have to do it..again? Why? He had already proven that he was superior. What purpose did another fight serve? Especially with an enemy that could not even move? Was not even conscious? That felt..wrong but so did the thought of just leaving.

He was growing frustrated, Metal did not like this! All these...new concepts he never had to deal with before. These... these feelings. Where had they come from? How did you get rid of them?

He reached out to poke Sonic again, searching the database once more only to come up with nothing. Feelings were a part of life, of living. They were what made life worth living. Mercy and Compassion were just as important as his missions. They were equal importance to being alive. This he could somewhat understand, sort of. They were things all living creatures had to deal with. He was living as well, but that left his mission in the air.

Kill Sonic. Destroy Upper World. Kill Sonic. He had done that and yet not done it. Sonic lived but he had seen the vitals drop. So this meant his job was...complete? He had done it. He had killed Sonic. The mission did not claim he had to do it again. He latched onto this, slotting it into his understanding of the world. It made sense! His mission was complete, finished. He no longer had to kill Sonic. It was of no consequence that Sonic returned to life somehow! Yes, good! perfect. Now what.

He was still left with a..living but unconscious Sonic and more weird concepts..feelings. It felt..bad? No not bad, incorrect? Wrong. It felt wrong to leave Sonic like this. Laying on the ground. These new concepts and feelings were important to being alive. Metal was alive and so he should follow them? To continue to be alive? He liked being alive, being real.

Which meant not leaving him here? But he could not bring Sonic with him, he had another Mission to complete. Stumped again, Metal found himself rubbing the fur on Sonic's face. Such an odd texture. Why have it? It did nothing to help defend against blows. It was flammable. Did not make him faster or resist liquids. Yet Metal found himself fascinated by the way it felt.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, rubbing the same patch of fur when a bird startled him. His mission! He had his mission to complete! Then...then what? He could return? What about after his mission. He would...get new missions? Metal gave his head another shake and firmly told himself to focus. These concepts and feelings were muddling things. He could figure out the 'after' when it was 'after'. Right now...he would just let the concepts decide what to do. That sounded smart.

First concept was the ground. This ground was hard and weak Sonic did not have a proper hard casing to protect his soft squishy form. He would have to fix this. it was easy enough to strip leaves off the many branches nearby. At first he placed them in the sun but then paused. Sun was...hmm..not directly in Sun. That was bad. Forcing himself not to overthink it, he was letting his feelings dictate right now. He moved his pile under some trees that he had not stripped bare.

Yes, that was better. Sonic was carefully laid on the pile and Metal nodded to himself. What else? Was he injured? His limbs were also fragile, prone to snapping if bent the wrong way and he could not even reattach new ones! How did flesh forms survive? He poked and prodded, searching the database but none of the images he turned up matched Sonic's limbs. He appeared to have been lucky in his fall? Still, Metal arranged his limbs in the most optimal position for flesh based forms.

Taking stock, Metal was surprised to find another concept. It had snuck up on him and also held no name in his own directory. It was...close? To satisfaction but not quite the same? What did it mean when you felt satisfaction but also felt..good? He liked this feeling but what was it?

This one was harder to find, many different databases giving conflicting information and he was forced to pare it all down to something singular. Happiness? He felt..happy? What else made him..happy? Fighting Sonic had made him happy. Each time he had gotten the upper hand, he had felt this happiness. Was that all that would make him happy? Could he have this concept without Sonic? What if he could not? What if it was tied to him?

The fear concept again. This one..he did not like. it was...harsh, thick like oil. Cloying everywhere and making it hard to function. metal fingers dipped into seams and grooves, checking that there was not an actual leakage that gummed him up to prevent his movement but there was nothing. This fear was...bad. Very bad. he wanted happy again! How did he get back to happy? Sonic, Sonic made him happy but he could not fight right now. Not like this so what should he do?

A search of 'how to make someone fight you again' brought up many things but nothing useful. Nothing that he needed. He got better results from 'how to make an injured person not injured'. Sonic was flesh, weak and needy but simple. Water and food were simple concepts. He could provide those and then Sonic would be able to fight him again. Bring back the happiness and prevent the fear.

He could not carry water in his hands, well he could but it was not very helpful. He had tried but dumping it onto Sonic's face did nothing. Casting about, he eventually found a large leaf that he could use. Moving slowly, carefully was new. and difficult. He spilled the water a few times before managing to bring the entire thing back.

Now what. How did you get someone unconscious to drink? He knew drowning was a dangerous thing so he could not just dump all of this. More searching and digging through databases, why did they have so many wrong databases? He eventually found something promising. Drip the water from his fingertips into his open mouth. Small small amounts. Slow and steady.

Metal put all his focus on it, leaning over Sonic and ever so slowly giving drip after drip until a sizable amount of the leaf had been emptied in this way. Food he could not do. He had no way of 'chewing' and there were no food based liquids to be found. He could find solid foods however, for when Sonic woke. He would need the energy to fight again.

This proved harder then he had expected. Meat was out of the question, he could not cook it safely and the databases claimed this was a very important thing, which left forest items such as nuts and berries. There were berries all over but which ones? A search of 'dangerous berries' to start seemed easy enough. Small, red or yellow or blue berries were dangerous. Those were to be avoided. Good. 'Safe berries' was where the trouble started.

Blue and black? But blue was dangerous! How was it dangerous and safe? That made no sense. How was he to know the difference? The images all seemed the same? He sat, frowning at the water leaf for awhile as he combed through different databases until finally coming upon something.

Warnings: None. No aggregate berry (those, like raspberries, that are made up of clusters of juicy little droplets) is poisonous to man or beast.

He had seen those! They were black as well! They would be double safe! He was not sure how much to bring back and so brought back another large leaf. Metal felt happy once again, looking over the leaf of water and mound of berries beside it. This was good. Sonic would wake soon, refuel and then they would fight once more! This time for...for what? Happiness? That seemed close but not quite. What was that other concept?

fun  
fən/Submit  
noun  
1.  
enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure.

Yes! that was it. Fun. He had fun fighting Sonic. He would go, complete his mission and then return to have fun. He returned to look down at Sonic, reaching out to feel the fur one more time. They would fight again, soon. Because Metal wanted too and not because it was his mission. It made him happy to fight Sonic. Would all fights make im happy? He would have to find out.

After his mission. He had put it off long enough. When he stepped away now, that feeling did not tug. Good, feeling complete and he could move on. There was a city nearby, perhaps he would find more of the concept:fun there.


End file.
